New York woefully underserved by freight rail

While New York City's population has surged past 8.5 million, it remains uniquely underserved by freight rail. Just 1.8% of intercity freight arrives here by rail, well under the national rate of 40%. Goods make their way across the country via train but run out of track before they reach the boroughs and through Long Island. The result is that trucks haul 90% of freight in the greater New York region, with trains carrying just 2% to 3%.

“We essentially have freight rail lines that end in New Jersey right before they come into the city,” said transportation guru Sam Schwartz. “For the most part we truck into the five boroughs and Nassau [County]. That creates a big problem because any freight that comes into the Holland Tunnel uses city streets in the densest part of the country, and then uses city streets going to Queens. We suffer from so many trucks going through our city.” A single rail-freight car can haul roughly as much as four trucks can. That leads to more emissions, damaged streets and clogged roadways. In all, New York consumers and businesses annually foot a $2.5 billion bill for truck congestion, Rep. Jerrold Nadler’s office estimates. And with freight to the New York metro region expected to increase by 37% in the next two decades, the need for a rail solution is set to grow. To solve the problem, Nadler has long advocated a freight tunnel under the harbor that connects the nation’s rail network to Brooklyn, which has a track that runs into Queens. But while hundreds of millions of dollars has been allocated over the years to pay for studies, funding to build a $10 billion (or more) tunnel has been hard to come by and may become harder still given the politics in Washington. Thus, the Regional Plan Association advocates adding freight capability to the planned Gateway tunnel, which would run under the Hudson River into Penn Station.

“The Gateway has to happen—why not include freight there?” asks Richard Barone, vice president for transportation at the Regional Plan Association. “We need to think about transit in a multifaceted way, especially when we have limited resources and we need to make our dollars go farther.”

But Nadler's office has called that idea problematic for a number of reasons, including inevitable conflicts with passenger trains.

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